From the Field Museum.

• Author: Wali, Alaka
• Position: FROM READERS - Letter to the Editor

We congratulate World Watch for highlighting the importance of the article "A Challenge to Conservationists" on the cover. The issues are serious and of global significance. As Mac Chapin observes, whether immediately evident or not, conservationists, traditional, and indigenous people need each other in the face of grave threats to the sustainability of life on our planet. Conservationists and indigenous peoples need to identify good examples of creative collaborations, at the same time that we reflect on, and move beyond, failures.

The Latin American subgroup of the indigenous peoples representatives at the Durban World Conservation Congress, in September 2003, pointed out that the high profile accusations against big conservationists were obscuring the voices from those projects where conservationists and local people are collaborating. They are also making it harder for indigenous communities to reach out to conservation organizations for assistance. The indigenous representatives hoped that there could be more recognition of the good examples of their own efforts to protect their biodiversity, and their work in collaboration between indigenous and traditional peoples and conservation organizations.

At Field Museum, we have formed a group that brings biologists, social scientists, and practitioners together to act on the conviction that local and indigenous...